Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-03-16
DAILY HERALD.
IEGIsLATIyE.
rhe 6 nAerald,s - Letter from
Aacramento.


This evening the members Of both
Hou ~, after putting in one of the hard
81 dsys' work of the session, relaxed
their official dignity and devoted some
time to the pleasing employment of Civ
ing presents to the presiding officers and
the principal attaches. OF course this
occupation was inseparably connected
With the favorits legislative art of ora
tory. The eloquence of some OF the
members upon whom devolved the CRATE
full duty Of making presentation
speeches, rose so high that it found itself
mot restricred and pent in by even the
lofty ceilings of the respective chambers.
Indeed, 60 intense were the feelings re-
sultisg from the skiliful play of divers
soeakers upon the emotions of their
hearers, that at the close of the gift
aivings the Senators and Assemblymen
souqht relief and recreation in the time
horored practice of Introducing jocular
resolutions. In this way many truths
we're told, and bluntly too; but of course
everyone took them in good part, for it
was al said in jest, and based ON the
supposition that the meaning conveyed
was not all intended.
Lieutenant. Governor Waterman was
presented with q beautiful gold watch
and chain, and also set of resolutions.
Senator White was presented with an
elegant set of silverware, and responded
in very happy way. He spoke as fol-
lows:
SENATOR WHITES SPEECH.
ssMR. PREsIDENT-.I do not know thatI
ought to be expected to reply to the
remarks of my friend and brother Sena.
tor. because, in the first place, am not
much of hand at responding under cir.
cumstances such as these, and there
does not flow from my lips language
pointed or strong enough to accurately
express my thoughts. Indeed, l but
very lately received any intimation that
it was designed to make such valuable
aud beautiful present 10 your occasional
presiding officer. But whatever l may
Say will not be the result of premeditated
thought, nor yet the product of studious
moments. No, sir; my words shall indi.
cate merely unfettered impulses and
eentiments unadorned or impaired by
the delusions of art. do not only ap.
preciate. but have often thought and
sometimes expressed reflections kindred
to thoso which have emanated from
my friend, with relation to this,
our native State. It has been
By no means the least of my enjoyments
to have been associated in this Legisla.
ture with 60 many young men. who were
born in California. who were reared and
educated within her confines, and who
are essentially home productions.
81 believe, sir. that you will bear me
out in saying that these younger men,
bers of the Legislature have fairly de.
ported themselves in these halls. To
speak thus is, perhaps, sounding praises
which. it may be, had better come from
other lips. Yet ours is no ordinary con-
ditiou, nor is it one that is charged with
undiluted pleasure, for as we grow older,
and q those who surround our hearth
stones tell US in accents which can not
be misunderstood, that our State has
ahrown aside her swaddling clothes, yet
We must remember, too, that those to
whom in earlier life we looked, as the
,men who brought this land into existance
.as commonwealth, are fast being sum-
moned hence. Upon many a headstone
aud monument are inscribed the names
of the fathers of California. We walk
our accustomed beat and grasp with
Kindly hand those whom we have known
from boyhood, and we. reflect that in a
short time they, too, will pass away,
and that the gray hairs which now adorn
their venerable heads, will ere long be
reproduced upon our own brows. 1t is
but the result of the fight of time, that
of those who are in these chambers
nearly one-sixth are to the manor born.
"With Senator Wilson, too, feel that
the responsibilities of government are to
some extent thrown upon US; not that
those whose advent has been recent, or
those who may come in the future are
not to share these obligations, but we
who have been reared on these shores,
who have climbed the hills, who have
traversed the valleys, who have been
carried upon the surface of the rivers
and lakes of this State, whose
dreams are associated with her mount
aius and dales, with the plains and the
rlens, over and through which we
hunted and coursed in boyhood's unre-
6ective hours. we who are chained to
our State by that sort of tie, which is
stronger than material bonds, we, indeed,
must recognize an obligation other than
that which is imposed by positive law
to be true to this, our country; and
while my friend has alluded to the pride
which we Justly feel in some, at least, of
the young men Of this State, let us not
forget land this is no mere formal word)
to remember that there is no part Of the
world that can look with more satistac-
ton and qualification upon its fair
offspring than can the State of California
upon her daughters.
"Mr. President, when this Legislature
convened and was elected the temper.
ary presiding officer of the Senate, felt
that an homer had been conferred upon
me which I ought not to lightly
regard. / was aware of the
fact that there were other
and older and more experienced gentle
men in this b-dy, and when l rsmem.
bered that was preferred to them il
would have been singular indeed had
not appreciated the magnitude of th.
compliment involved in my selection.
LET me say that do not know of {
single word. q solitary syllable, uttered
by any Senator at any time during thil
session upon this floor, which was borr
of partisan feeling. When we met tt
adopt the rules which were to govern
the Senate. and when the majority de
cided that three-fifths of the member
should control those rules, and when
my friend from San Francisco protested
against that proposition as an innov atiop
and feared that some ones rights might
be impaired, or that the privileges OF
the minority might be disregarded, he nc
doubt thought be had reason to be alarm
ed. But, however sound his theory might
have been, however cheerless his antici.
patton, practical results have proven as
he will admit, that his forebodings were